Appropriate that the game which ended the season started off with the comical moment between Scott Van Slyke and Joe Kelly you see above, as 2013 for the Dodgers was the best and most entertaining that I can remember.

These below, however, sum up today.

Now onto the off-season — and we’ll have plenty of stuff coming up — but remember that 2013 was great, great fun and thanks to everybody who came along for the ride.

Wainwright, if you remember, blamed white towels as the reason for Matt Holliday taking a James Loney fliner off the dick back in the 2009 NLDS, so he has a history of complaining about completely asinine crap. Also worth mentioning that the Cardinals hand out the same white towels at home now during the playoffs, which makes all this even better.

“As a player, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know. I think he doesn’t know,” Beltran said. “He still thinks he’s playing somewhere else, I don’t know. He has a lot of passion, no doubt about that. Great ability, great talent, and I think with time he will learn that you have to sometimes act a little bit more calm. Not only with trying to show up other teams, [but also], like, umpires. It’s going to take him time, but he’s going to learn.

“When you try to do those things, you get attention. You don’t want to wake up nobody. I always say that if you hit a homer off a pitcher, you have to make him believe that he made a mistake. You don’t wake him up, because next time the pitcher is going to be more focused with you and is going to try to get you out, try to be more aggressive. As a player, he will learn. I don’t think he’s a bad kid, I just think he doesn’t know right now.”

In my opinion, Puig’s greatest offense wasn’t his celebration, but the fact that he allowed Beltran’s horrid misplay on his triple to not be a potential inside-the-park homer. Naturally, Beltran didn’t see it that way, because it’s of the utmost importance to police the opposing team’s screwups.

So that’s basically the issue at hand and it’s naturally being pumped up by the media for maximum pageviews and handwringing.

I make this point all the time, but sports is entertainment, and if you take it that way you stop being so offended over things as silly as celebrating. And honestly, I think you stop taking stuff that goes on within that arena so personally, in general. Besides, if you’re going to get mad about something, do it over something worthwhile, like pointless beanball wars and brawls, not guys having fun.

I just have trouble with understanding the logic and reasoning of people who look to sports as some kind of moral compass for how we as a society and culture should act. If you’re relying on sports for that, then it seems to me there are more pressing issues with your life and decision making than why some dude on TV is happy and you’re not.

2. If you’re gonna talk the talk and concern troll others then you better walk the walk.

Why do all the concern trolls end up doing similar stuff themselves but thinking their shit doesn’t stink?

- Joe Kelly fist pump, screams, and turns to scream at Puig … in the first frame of the SERIES.

Puig is immature but he walks away after a guy strikes him out and yells at him, angry at himself, doesn't whine like a child to the media.

- Beltran doing a similar celebration as A-Gon that gets cut short by TV.

- Carlos Martinez bouncing off the mound, pounding his glove a bunch, and praising his deity.

- Yadier Molina screaming after an out, pumping his fist, and pounding the dirt.

- Cardinals celebrating like they won the World Series, complete with Gatorade bath and fireworks … after winning Game 1.

- Matt Carpenter leading off Game 2 with a triple then fist pumping, screaming, and clapping towards his dugout.

- Michael Wacha bounding off the mound, half-fist pump, and skips all the way to dugout.

Where’s the fun police on all this? And it doesn’t even count the “typical” reactions of screaming and clapping and Yadi fist pumps basically every inning. You don’t see A.J. Ellis doing that, so should I whine or something? That’s how it works, right?

Bleh.

Do I think there’s anything wrong with the stuff pictured above? Nah. I never even came close to complaining about any of it while it happened either. But the point is that if the Cardinals are gonna high-horse and lord over everybody, then they better act up to their lofty standards themselves or enforce it on their own teammates to start.

3. So where exactly is the line between offensive/over the top and gritty/gamery? You tell me. No, really … tell me.

If that’s not the case, and what the Cardinals do is somehow different than what Puig and A-Gon did, then what are the guidelines exactly? Either spell it out or stop whining.

His flair comes through mainly in his tendency to celebrate hits like his triple Monday with the kind of outward jubilation that the American baseball establishment frowns on.

In many Latin American countries, Puig’s antics would hardly separate him from his peers. “In Cuba, you always see a lot of emotion on the field,” Puig said through an interpreter. In the United States, that kind of emotion generates grumpy, passive-aggressive responses like the one Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had when asked about Puig’s reaction to the triple. “Guys are going to handle successes and failures however they’re going to handle them,” Matheny said.

The game would be better off if more players handled success like Puig, or at the very least, felt like they were free to do so. It’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be entertaining. Somewhere along the line, U.S. baseball players became the most sensitive athletes in all of sports. Clap once after a hit, and they’ll tolerate it. Clap twice, and you’re showing them up, an offense punishable by a fastball off your leg the next time you come to the plate.

Exactly. It’s an arbitrary, constantly moving line and completely pointless.

—–

So where do I stand on it? The whole thing is relatively simple to me.

I dunno. If you're celebrating yourself, pumping up teammates, or pumping up fans, it's all fair game to me. Just don't taunt people.

Taunting usually directly incites fighting/violence, which is something the sport should try to avoid. Of course, reacting to taunting with violence is illogical in itself, but not everybody is Brandon McCarthy:

When discussing 'pimping' homers it's best to remember the phrase "who cares?"

Regardless, that’s just my two cents. And as McCarthy, Kevin Towers, and Miguel Montero have shown, people can’t even agree on team-wide guidelines, much less league-wide ones. Others will have different limits, and I understand that. But that’s the point, it’s all subjective and I just can’t see the reason behind getting so flustered over what somebody else does in regards to their own interests.

Personally, I tend to internalize my struggles and look in the mirror for faults first, though I’m aware that others apparently dedicate their lives to meddling in the business of others because it helps distract them from their own personal failings. After all, it’s much easier to blame the happy dude for being happy than face the reality that you’ve come up short due to your own faults. To me, that says far more about them than it does the person having fun, and it ironically paints a picture of an insecure and immature individual who can’t handle another person’s joy.

Yasiel Puig struck out four times, Juan Uribe couldn’t come through, Michael Young is doing the exact opposite of what the Dodgers wanted from him, Adrian Gonzalez forgot how to hit, and it goes on and on.

2) Yasiel Puig still not making horrific mistakes that lose the game any more than any other member.

That’s like a half dozen heads-up/good defensive plays in the playoffs against one defensive misplay.

He hit like crap today but so did the team.

3) Carlos Beltran is not human and the Dodgers should protest the game because robots are not allowed.

I didn’t capture the game-winning hit because I was in a fit of rage at the moment, but whatever, this is a Dodger blog and I’m SURE YOU GET THE POINT.

Also, remember when Andre Ethier was being hailed as an above-average center fielder? That was fun.

4) Don Mattingly … why?

In the top of the eighth inning, Adrian Gonzalez walked and was pinch run for by Dee Gordon … why? It’s a tie game, the run is not even guaranteed to matter at that juncture, and A-Gon was likely to get another chance through the order at the rate the game was going. So, of course, Gordon didn’t even attempt to steal and Puig grounded out to short, a ground out that would have been an infield hit if Gordon went at any point in the at-bat. That’s bad enough, but the consequences really came seeking Mattingly in Game 1.

Naturally it was Michael Young at first, because Scott Van Slyke was in witness protection (his first action, of course, was in center field). Young managed to fly into a double play and ground into a double play, both at soul-crushing moments, somehow making him one of the worst hitters in postseason single-game history in one plate appearance.

Michael Young's -.527 WPA is the 6th lowest ever for a postseason game

In the situation in the 10th, Hanley Ramirez was intentionally walked to get to Young, taking the bat out of his hands. Mark Ellis then wheelchaired his way to home on a fly ball to shallow right while Beltran gunned him down.

Carl Crawford walked, Mattingly bunted him over with Ellis and took the bat out of the hands of Hanley again, and Young did his gritty veteran thing … again.

Hanley didn’t get to bat, A-Gon didn’t get to bat, and Young made sure Puig didn’t get more chances with runners on. Arguably the three best hitters in the lineup were robbed of opportunities again and again because of that move, and people wonder why they didn’t score for the last ten innings? Makes total sense to me.

—–

I usually defend Mattingly because the average manager does dumb things all the time as well. But these aren’t things he was doing during the regular season, he’s changing his game decision-making for the worse. Game 2 of the NLDS and Game 1 of the NLCS are prime examples of that, and there’s really no defense for how he’s handled the situations.

Worried about Puig and Greinke choking? It’s Mattingly who has completely changed his M.O. and has looked nervous during the postseason.

The Dodgers now have one lefty out of the pen to pitch against a team that’s 25th in wOBA against lefties but 3rd in wOBA against righties. Furthermore, J.P. Howell is probably the team’s third-best reliever, but he has to almost be saved now for key lefty matchup situations, which means Ronald Belisario and friends are likely gonna get key innings ahead of him … K.

To say that I don’t understand swapping Paco Rodriguez and Chris Capuano for Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol is an understatement. Unless the pair of relievers were close to death, I have to question why you would drop either of them for CARLOS FREAKIN MARMOL.

I did player panic ratings for the Dodgersbefore the NLDS, so I figured why not do them for the NLCS too?

See, while fans go nuts at players during the regular season, they absolutely lose sanity during the postseason. I understand that, because there’s more at stake, but sane people let it go after they calm down, while insane people let it dictate their perception of the player forever.

The creation of the player panic ratings was inspired by those insane people. It was made to speculate on which players Dodger fans will overreact to for the rest of their lives.

Remember, sample size is for nerds, so who lacks the guts, heart, and grit to execute that one pitch or one play?! Who will have their career defined by a four to seven game sample?!

Let’s be honest, it’s more thrilling than the games at times.

—–

Yasiel Puig is still at a 10, but instead of an off-the-charts 10, it’s more like a normal 10. The reason being that I actually saw people starting to come around on the fact that he wasn’t this gigantic dipshit that costs the Dodgers three runs a game. Of course, the downside is that it took him having an OPS above 1.000 to get them to come around, and people were STILL blaming him for losing Game 4 because he played a double into a triple, a run that likely would have scored anyway. Says it all.

Kenley Jansen goes up because Jonathan Broxton was great in the NLDS too, it’s the NLCS blown save that makes fans hate him. So Jansen is still well within career hate territory, and it’s only going to get worse.

Zack Greinke goes up as well, because the bigger the stage the dumber people get about stuff like anxiety disorder without actually trying to understand what makes them uncomfortable. I don’t know his condition exactly, but from my experience, I would bet he feels more uncomfortable in celebration scrums and high-fiving fans around the park than being on the mound in the playoffs. Also, who cares if the Cardinals DESTROY right-handed pitching, if he bombs it’s because he’s NUTS.

Clayton Kershaw is up for similar reasons as Greinke. Bigger stage, so the ace has to be Orel Hershiser or people are gonna start questioning him. Before Juan Uribe went yard to win Game 4, fans were already criticizing Kershaw for his performance (two unearned runs, lol) and why he wasn’t going deeper in the game.

Ricky Nolasco, I would hate to be you. Struggling in September and skipped in the NLDS, nobody has confidence in you, and if he bombs in the NLCS the claws are gonna come out something awful.

Paco Rodriguez has struggled down the stretch as well, and after he gave up a bases loaded single to Jason Heyward in Game 2, basically all confidence was lost and his excellent season was reduced to his current miserable state. Calls for Brandon League over him were coming in after Game 3, put it that way.

Hyun Jin Ryu is on this chart because he gave the worst performance out of all the starters in the NLDS, but that was ignored because the Dodger offense exploded in Game 3. If he pitches poorly again and they lose, I doubt people will be so forgiving. Personally, I still think he’s not 100% and that’s part of the reason, but I doubt fans will care.

Adrian Gonzalez was set to be the goat in Game 4. If Puig made the type of game-changing errors A-Gon did, the announcers would be all over him. But he’s A-Gon so no matter what he does people will rally behind him, and that’s the only reason I can say he’s this low.

Hanley Ramirez strikes me as difficult to blame at this point because he’s been so ridiculous for the team all year, though I suppose that might be why fans could freak out if he has a poor NLCS, but I doubt it would be anything but temporary.

Juan Uribe could probably pick the Cardinals to win the NLCS in four games and fans would laugh it off at this point.

—–

Update

I’m replacing Paco with Ronald Belisarioin light of recent roster moves. Belisario is about equally on the verge of being victimized by fans in a drive-by tweeting of pure hatred. Also, I have to add Carlos Marmol somewhere around a 7-8, no? I think fans expect him to fail, so that will blunt some of it … but not all of it if he does implode.

—–

Don Mattingly is always at a 10, especially because inexperienced manager/first postseason/what he did in the NLDS.

The Dodgers are set to play the Cardinals in the 2013 NLCS, which is interesting because it’s not interesting. In other words, the media hasn’t really figured out a narrative here. Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sportsgave it a go, but it was sort of a half-hearted rich/poor thing.

So maybe, just MAYBE, the baseball can speak for itself? Here’s hoping, but I doubt it. Something about Adam Wainwright teaching Yasiel Puig how to be a better man or whatever.

wRC+ is a player’s offensive production. The moar over 100 the player is, the moar gooder they are.
BR is BRR/BsR averaged. BR/150 means it’s per 150 games.
D is UZR/DRS/FRAA averaged. D/150 means it’s per 150 games.
ERA-/FIP- mean the moar under 100 the player is the better.

Positionnal adjustment, replacement level, and WAR don’t matter for these matchups. I wanted everything context neutral and judged on the same playing field, hence this methodology.

In other words, why penalize current starters for being part-time players during the regular season if they’re full-time players now?

Is this perfect? Absolutely not, but I think it provides a starting point for discussion.

—–

Catcher

Yadier Molina is worse on the bases than A.J. Ellis, but he hits like 40% better. Catcher defense on that chart should be thrown out, since it’s the most difficult thing for sabermetrics to gauge. Still though, Molina dominates in that category and his impact is arguably even greater than what that comparison shows.

They’re both slow as hell, but Matt Adams lacks Adrian Gonzalez‘s reactions and hands, so A-Gon grades out as a superior defender. Adams can smash the ball a bit better than A-Gon, but he’s done it over a far smaller sample size. Furthermore, Adams has a brutal platoon split, one that A-Gon doesn’t have.

I’ll take A-Gon’s track record, defense, and lack of need for a platoon partner.

Advantage: #Didgers, but it’s closer than most would think.

Second Base

Mark Ellis is a better defender, but Matt Carpenter will be on the NL MVP ballot for his combination of hitting and baserunning that’s complimented by a solid glove.

Juan Uribe is a better all-around player at the moment, mainly due to David Freese‘s year-long slump. Freese’s defense was never good, but he usually hits better than he has in 2013, which would make this closer.

Unfortunately for him, Uribe is in the middle of a Gold Glove caliber defensive campaign, is solidly above-average with the bat, and even runs the bases better. Freese would have the whole intangibles/clutch thing going for him if it wasn’t for the fact that Uribe has two World Series rings and just hit the most memorable Dodger homer in recent history.

Advantage: #Didgers by more than their reputations would imply.

Shortstop

Pete Kozma is great defensively, but Hanley Ramirez is just carrying this Dodgers team and has been all year while healthy. Andrelton Simmons is a better defender and a better hitter than Kozma, and Hanley still got the nod over him last series, so this is Hanley in a runaway.

Advantage: #Didgers because Hanley rules.

Left Field

Carl Crawford hit three homers in a four-game span, which was great, but we also have to remember why that was so great. The primary reason being that he had hit one homer since May 7, and there’s probably no way he does that again at any point in his career. Even if you give him a bit of a boost, Matt Holliday has been one of the more consistently excellent hitters of the last decade, and nobody seems to care.

Andre Ethier is the easy choice here over Jon Jay because he hits better and they’re both mediocre defensively … oh wait, Ethier’s not 100%.

Jay has struggled a bit with the bat and glove in 2013, but Ethier’s not fully healthy and was already mediocre in center. Also, I have to wonder how the long layoff will affect his bat.

Advantage: Push because Ethier might be a gimp, though Jay is basically fringe-average.

Right Field

Yasiel Puig vs. Carlos Beltran is a great matchup because it’s easy to choose Puig when looking at the regular season comparison but Beltran is one of the greatest postseason hitters of all-time.

Puig proved his worth in the NLDS already. He basically made one blunder, which cost the Dodgers a single base, but he posted an OPS above 1.000 and was otherwise solid defensively and on the basepaths. Like everybody has said about the concerns regarding Puig, the bottom line is that he provides more value than he costs in the big picture.

So that’s good for Puig and all, but Beltran is not human. His postseason line is .345/.453/.761/1.214, and while I realize that might be statistical noise, I just can’t overlook how horrifying it is to face him at this point in the season. I tell myself that it’s irrational and he’s bound to regress to the mean at some point, especially given his age … and then boom, he hits a homer. It’s ridiculous at this point.

Advantage: Push because I love Puig and objectively he should be the better player, but Beltran is some kind of playoff robot that needs to go away.

Rotation

This is similar to the matchup with the Braves, where the Dodgers have the better rotation, but the difference isn’t as significant as it would seem on paper. Also, unlike the Braves, the Cardinals have an ace in Adam Wainwright that matches Clayton Kershaw in terms of providing a clear advantage over his opposing pitcher (Hyun Jin Ryu/Michael Wacha). I would take Zack Greinke over Lance Lynn or Joe Kelly, though, and Ricky Nolasco is basically a push going against either of those two for me.

Here’s the decider for me, though: the Dodgers rank 15th in the majors against lefties via wOBA and 11th against righties, putting them in the middle of the pack, regardless. But the Cardinals are 25th against lefties and 3rd against righties, and fortunately for the Dodgers, they have two quality lefties in their rotation.

Advantage: #Didgers win barely on matchups but a wider gap emerges when factoring in lineups and handedness.

Bench

The Dodgers have a prototypical utility man in Nick Punto, who can hit a bit but really stars on defense and as a potential replacement should anything happen to a starter. Michael Young and Skip Schumaker will likely handle pinch-hitting duties, hopefully in platoon roles, as both are actually solid singles hitters against the opposite handedness. As always, neither should see the field if at all possible. Scott Van Slyke has pop off the bench, though he went inexplicably unused in the NLDS. Tim Federowicz is a defense-first backup catcher. If Dee Gordon makes the team, then he’s basically the designated pinch runner.

The Cardinals will likely go with Kolten Wong, Daniel Descalso, Shane Robinson, Tony Cruz, and Adron Chambers. That is … not a good bench. Out of those five players, only Robinson has a wOBA over .300, and even that’s only at .303. Also, as far as I can tell, none are particularly good at defense nor are they experienced.

Advantage: #Didgers in a landslide.

Bullpen

The Dodgers’ pen is rock solid in theory. Kenley Jansen is an elite closer. Brian Wilson has been almost flawless since being signed. J.P. Howell has regained his old form as a shutdown lefty. Rookie Chris Withrow has emerged as a reliable late option as a power arm. Paco Rodriguez and Ronald Belisario both had good years. Of course, the issue is that both Paco and Beli have collapsed down the stretch, and since Withrow can still be prone to doubts of command issues, it essentially leaves Mattingly with Howell as his third-best option. Chris Capuano looking solid in the NLDS is promising, but he’s still a wild card, and the same goes for the potential addition of Edinson Volquez or Carlos Marmol.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, have so much young pitching talent that they put Shelby Miller (temporarily?) in the pen. He makes the unit that posted a 3.26 FIP in 2013 even better. Miller joins the likes of Trevor Rosenthal, Carlos Martinez, Edward Mujica, John Axford, and Seth Maness from the right. And Kevin Siegrist and Randy Choate will come from the left.

Advantage: @BestFansStLouis by quite a bit. Their young power arms shine, while two of the Dodgers’ best relievers are limping into the NLCS.

Overall

The Dodgers are the more talented team on paper and have an advantage in a lot of the key matchups, but it’s not by all that much. A lot of how this series will go is going to depend on how the Cardinals choose their rotation (Miller?) and how they handle the two lefties in Kershaw and Ryu.

Not only do the Cardinals have to beat Greinke and Kershaw at least once, but if the series goes seven games, they could see the lefties four times as well. I would pick the Cardinals if it wasn’t for the platoon splits, but in a lot of ways this is a bad matchup for them. In the end, I see that being the difference and I’m picking the Dodgers in seven.

The Dodgers head into the 2013 NLCS against the Cardinals looking to be a much better team than they were earlier in the week during the NLDS. While the squad’s NLCS roster should look almost identical to the NLDS roster, there should be a couple tweaks, as the club hopes to getAndre Ethier back healthy and perhaps will add more depth to their battered pen.

Hobbled Hanley Ramirez was kept indoors, but healing Andre Ethier was running down fly balls in the gap Wednesday as the Dodgers worked out at Dodger Stadium in preparation for Friday’s start of the National League Championship Series.

As he did throughout the NL Division Series, Ramirez is expected to be in the starting lineup at shortstop for Game 1 in St. Louis. And Ethier is a good bet to be in center field if he feels as well Friday as he looked Wednesday, turning and sprinting full speed to chase fly balls while the Cardinals-Pirates game was being shown on the video boards.

“It feels good,” Ethier said. “We’ll see where I am tomorrow.”

Pitching single innings in the simulated game were Brandon League, Carlos Marmol, Edinson Volquez and Chris Withrow. Only Withrow was on the NLDS roster.

League, Marmol, Volquez, Jerry Hairston, Peter Moylan, Nick Buss and Drew Butera continue to work with the club. They were not on the NLDS roster. Mattingly wouldn’t reveal if there would be any changes to the roster for the NLCS.

So factoring that information into my choices, here’s what I came up with:

Rotation

Clayton Kershaw
Zack Greinke
Hyun Jin Ryu
Ricky Nolasco

No changes from the NLDS here. Some concern about Hyun Jin Ryu‘s health and Ricky Nolasco‘s efficacy, but I’m honestly not fretting over either at this point. Just cautious.

I add Edinson Volquez here. Only Michael Young and Ethier pinch-hit in the NLDS, and if Don Mattingly is going to use his bench that way, they might as well add another arm. This is especially true with the slightly increased risk of short outings from Ryu and Nolasco, in addition to now potentially needing Chris Capuano as a shutdown LOOGY out of the pen with Paco Rodriguez scuffling.

I think Ethier will be back in center to start over Skip Schumaker. Reasons to be skeptical? Yes, but I think they played it right in the NLDS and at the end of the season, as they were patient in waiting for him to get healthy when there was every temptation to rush him back.

Given that, I think you move Yasiel Puig to the top and flip-flop Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley Ramirez. Besides the handedness advantage to that batting order, Mark Ellis finally gets to hit where he should be hitting, especially against the Cardinals’ all right-handed rotation. Speaking of which, that means there’s no need to platoon Ethier in the starting lineup, so Scott Van Slyke can be saved for a pinch. Will Mattingly use him when Ethier is facing Randy Choate with the bases loaded? That’s the question.

It’s a shallow bench now, but Mattingly only used Young and Ethier extensively anyway, so it’s clear he has little intention of removing regulars during the postseason. The Dodgers have cover at every position, the platoon of Young and Schumaker likely first off the bench to pinch-hit, and Van Slyke saved for power opportunities (I hope).

Missing Dee Gordon is a risk if Ethier or whoever else isn’t 100% to run, but if that were to happen there are bigger problems than can be fixed by using a roster spot on a pinch-runner. There’s an argument to be made for Dee, but he has little-to-no utility outside of his speed at the moment, so I see more use in having an extra pitcher, particularly with the potential of playing seven games in nine days.

—–

Overall, not much changed here, but swapping Schumaker for Ethier in the starting lineup and helping out the pen by swapping Dee and Volquez are two upgrades. One’s significant and one’s minor, but they’re upgrades nonetheless, and heading into a series with the impossible-to-kill Cardinals, I’d prefer all the advantages the Dodgers can get.